GAMBIT #12 - January 2000

Summary:
Gambit’s father informs him that he must travel back to 1891’s London,
because he remembers Gambit saving his life there as a boy. He seeks
help from Sekmeht Conoway, who advises him to use Dr. Doom’s time
platform. Gambit recruits Courier and the Mengo Brothers for help and
invades Doom’s castle. After facing Stryfe’s Doombot guards, he locates
the time platform and forces Courier to go along with him.

Continuity Notes:

Jean
Luc Lebeau uses the Tithe Collector to help verify his story about
Gambit saving his life as a child. Gambit learns from both the Tithe
Collector and Sekmeht Conoway that Fontanelle has been invading their
dreams.

Gambit turns to Conoway for help time-traveling following the events of “The Hunt for the Tomorrow Stone,” the Gambit cyber-comic that appears to be lost to the ages.

Stryfe is the ruler of Latveria at this point in continuity, as Dr. Doom still has not returned following the events of Heroes Reborn: Heroes Return. As many fans pointed out at the time, how exactly Stryfe took over Latveria was never shown. He landed in Latveria in the X-Man/Cable crossover, but had a vague death scene at the end.

“Huh?” Moment:
The narration makes a joke about Gambit getting Conoway to crawl in
front of him in the castle’s ventilation shaft, but the art shows that
she’s behind him.

Review:
It’s the year-end anniversary issue, and Nicieza has decided to pull
together some of the seemingly disparate threads and begin the next
phase of the title. All of this is a setup for getting Gambit in
position to travel back to the late nineteenth century, which will
eventually shed more light on Fontanelle, the history of the Thieves
Guild, Candra, Mr. Sinister, and the mysterious New Son. There’s no
great reason for Sekmeht Conoway, Courier, or the Mengo Brothers to be
here; I'm assuming that Nicieza wants the reader to feel as if the
previous eleven issues have been building to this story, but the
character interactions just feel too rushed. Looking back, it’s obvious
Nicieza wanted to do more with Sekmeht Conoway as a love interest, but
her appearances in the book were so sparse the idea went nowhere.
Having her guide Gambit through Stryfe’s castle is a nice use of the
character, though. Nicieza seems to be the only person working for
Marvel at the time who put any thought into why
Stryfe was in Latveria in the first place. Could it be that the evil
chaos-bringer from the future might want that time machine Doom keeps in
his basement?

Unfortunately, Steve Skroce doesn’t seem too excited about any of this, as he leaves this month to go work on the Matrix
sequels. His section of the story consists of very loose breakdowns
that are poorly finished by Rodney Ramos. The often bizarre coloring
isn’t much of a help, either, as we’re treated to characters with gray
skin, literally purple mountains, and a color scheme that alternates
between drab and garish and never finds a middle ground.

Summary:
In 1891, The Tithe Collector informs the Thieves Guild that Candra is
not satisfied with their gifts. Meanwhile, Gambit and Courier locate
master thief Adam Worth in his London home. He helps them break into
Nathan Milbury’s estate, where Gambit’s grandfather Jacques Lebeau is
leading a mission to appease Candra after failing to obtain the
Momentary Princess. As punishment, Candra is keeping two Guild
children, Jean Luc Lebeau and Belize Marceaux, captive. Gambit hands
his grandfather notes from Milbury’s lab that will give Candra
information on his advanced studies.

Continuity Notes:

Candra
explains to Jean Luc and Belize her history with the Thieves Guild,
revealing that she grants them power and longevity so that they can
“divine and resurrect the Old Kingdom.” She believes that the knowledge
she gains from the Old Kingdom will help her to continue discretely
gaining more power.

Belize Marceaux is apparently Gambit’s maternal uncle.

Nathan Milbury is Mr. Sinister’s alias, of course.

The Momentary Princess previously appeared in Gambit #10.

Review:
That’s a lot of exposition to throw into the middle of a comic.
Buried in all of this is more information on Candra than we’ve ever
been given, a good six years after her first appearance. As Nicieza
reveals, Candra keeps her distance from the other Externals, hoping that
by staying a non-entity they’ll leave her alone while she accumulates
ancient knowledge from around the world. This works to explain why
Candra didn’t show up with the rest of the Externals during their early
appearances in X-Force
(and what a memorable cast of characters those guys were), a question
that probably no one was asking but is addressed nonetheless. The truth
is, Candra was established as an External in her early appearances
because the External storyline wasn’t viewed as embarrassing yet, and it
worked as a vague enough origin for the character.

Nicieza’s
also revealed why exactly the Thieves and Assassin Guilds have been
subjugating themselves to Candra for decades, and it involves a deal to
unlock the secrets of the “Old Kingdom.” I don’t think the Old Kingdom
storyline ever reaches a satisfactory conclusion, but at least the seeds
are there in case someone decides to mine deeeep into X-continuity for new Candra material.

Summary:
Candra rejects the notes handed to her, because she recognizes the designs
for Apocalypse’s gestation chamber. The Tithe Collector convinces her
to send Jacques Lebeau in her stead to America to learn more about
Nathan Milbury’s work. When she refuses to release both boys, Gambit
and Adam Worth rescue Jean Luc and cover their escape with explosions.
The next morning, Gambit and Courier prepare to travel to America
before the Thieves Guild can reach Milbury.

Review:
Okay, Gambit managed to rescue his father rather early on in this
storyline. I guess the rest of this trip is going to be dedicated to
revealing more about Mr. Sinister and the Thieves Guild. One of those
is interesting, the other fills me with apathy. Guess which
is which. There is a decent idea in here, that Candra is so terrified
of Apocalypse she sends the Thieves Guild in her place, putting Gambit
in competition with his family to reach Sinister first, but…isn’t the
Thieves Guild family the last thing this book should be exploring?
There are already too many Guild members in the current day that no one
cares about. Who really wants to read about their ancestors?

3 comments:

Your ending remarks totally summed up what I disliked about the 90's Gambit comic. I really hated the thieves guild and I did not care for the supporting cast at all. I lasted as long as # 12 before giving up on it. But, I enjoyed revisiting it through your perceptions.